Most computing devices are somewhat rigid in that they are capable of sustaining a decent amount of unintentional damage. However, computing devices are electromechanical and failures do happen and are in fact eventually inevitable at some point in time.
Most predictive failure techniques in the industry are directed to the software processing environment, memory, hard drive, and the processor. A variety of programmatic approaches are available to track and raise alerts when conditions indicate a failure has happened or is about to happen.
Additionally, computing devices often have peripheral devices, which can be vital to the overall intended purpose of the computing devices. For instance, A Point-Of-Sale (POS) terminal may include a variety of devices integrated into the main computing core or interfaced to the main computing core. For a POS terminal to be fully operational to service customer checkouts, a scanner, touchscreen, and a printer need to be functioning properly. Even a simple touchscreen hinge that malfunctions can cause the touchscreen to be inoperable or the display head to become wobbly or loose.
Existing software monitoring and tracking has no ability to detect when a mechanical hinge is going bad. Once the touchscreen is inoperable, the entire POS terminal is inoperable because transaction information will not display and transaction inputs cannot be displayed and received by the POS core. As another example, the touchscreen surface may crack or degrade such that certain areas on the touchscreen are unable to receive touch inputs. Still further, when a printer fails to properly print receipts there may be no advance notice or information as to why the printer is malfunctioning through software only based approaches.